Here’s an interesting statistic from the motorcycling world:
It should be pretty obvious that this is a Problem. A Big Problem. When the average age of your consumer increases by nine years in nine years, you’re just selling bikes to the exact same people.
Should credit unions offer financial education programs to people your age?
I really do think that lack of knowledge about the whole “how to manage your money” shebang is why people my age aren’t more involved with their money. I’ve had a credit union account for years, but until recently, my parents always handled everything. Now that I understand we are paying tens of thousands of dollars for college it feels real to me, even kind of scary. It’s even scarier when it is something I’m told is normal.
Blogs are still cutting edge technology, right?
Well, yes and no. By having a blog you’ve definitely joined the 21st century, but that’s no great feat thanks to sites like WordPress. Nowadays it’s not about whether or not you have a blog, but instead how you use it.
In my experience, a spokesperson is something that looks good on paper. The truth is, when I see a kid my age who’s supposedly going to bridge the gap between some business and me, all I see is a girl or guy who was smart enough to make some money off of that company’s desire to reach our demographic. Not to say that the idea is invalid, but it’s not like I buy into the idea that this random person will understand me just because they’re my peer.
Read more on Ask Sam: Does using a spokesperson help reach a younger audience?…
Ask Sam: So how important is social media involvement anyway? Do people your age really care whether your CU/bank tweets regularly?
This is a complicated question. I don’t have to tell anyone that advertising through social media is both new and ambiguous. You can spend more time than you can imagine trying to find the balance between posting too much and not posting enough in an effort to reach your desired audience. Even then you’re eventually going to ask yourself, “is it worth it?”
Last week we posted a poll on what you wanted to ask Sam next, and the winning question was: What do you and your friends want from a financial institution?
Anything you can do to make our lives easier would be welcome, starting with letting us know what all you can actually do to help us. Most people my age have no idea what differences there are between credit unions and banks, much less what the benefits of joining are.
Read more on Ask Sam: What do you and your friends want from a financial institution?…
Meet Sam
Fresh from a semester in Barcelona Spain, Kent and Janet’s son Sam is sitting in with iDiz for a couple of months until heading back to Indiana University in the fall to finish degrees in English and Spanish. As a multilingual 21 year old college student, Sam is a fine specimen of a demographic lots of credit union marketers are eager to reach. Since we’ll have him in captivity for a little while, we’ve asked Sam to blog about what he and his generation want and need from financial services and the world in general.
If there’s anything you’d like to ask Sam, or if you have ideas for blog topics you’d like to see Sam take on, just post a comment or email sam@idizinc.com .
Read more on Five things credit unions need to know about my generation…
Gen Y needs help! Really.
I’ve written about this before – the great need to educate kids about all things financial. I know I was never taught. I guess I just figured it out myself but I know I didn’t do a very good job. If I had money in my account, I thought I could spend it. I didn’t think about what bills might be due down the road. Or saving anything.
In recent months here at iDiz, I’ve noticed an increase in the requests for marketing recommendations for the youth market. Maybe marketers have realized that one of the best places to get new members is the children of their current members. It’s vital to get your credit union name out there and known to kids before they turn 18 and graduate from high school.
Loading ...
If you like reading SharediDiz, you're just the sort of client we'd love to work with!
Give us a call at 877.576.0602 or shoot us an email with your biggest, ugliest, hairiest marketing problem!
iDiz Inc. helps credit unions grow membership and market share through strategic branding, creative marketing promotions, and member-friendly web sites.
Why credit unions? Because credit unions make the world a better place. We like working for the good guys!
